Stockbridge Students Make a Splash in Underwater Robotics at Innovative Vehicle Design Challenge

Students from Stockbridge Jr/Sr. High School place first in Design and Innovation at this year’s Square One Education Network’s Underwater Innovative Vehicle Design (IVD) Challenge. Students from Stockbridge Jr./Sr. High School and other schools enrolled in Square One Education Network’s STEM-focused curriculum come together to test their knowledge of marine robotics at the organization’s Underwater Innovative Vehicle Design (IVD) Challenge. This year’s event marked the 10^th annual IVD Challenge for Square One, and took place on Saturday, March 10, 2018, at Roseville High School in Roseville, Mich.

The new ROV

Representing the next generation of technical talent, 29 teams of third through 12^th-graders competed in various challenges using underwater remotely operated vehicles which they designed and built for the competition. These challenges encourage fun, problem solving and teamwork and follow a civil engineering theme, including a traffic jam, an underwater expressway, an underwater surveying task, and an underwater IVD drag race.  During the competition, the underwater vehicle teams are evaluated based on design innovation, engineering and craftsmanship, performance, ambassadorship, presentation, enthusiasm and use of social media.

“Our team was very excited to be part of Square One’s Underwater Robotics IVD Challenge this year,” said Bob Richards, the team’s faculty mentor.  “Participating in this event has sparked our students’ imagination and reasoning abilities to create vehicles that can effectively move underwater, providing them with practical application of their STEM classroom learning.”

This year’s team consisted of Seniors Madi Howard, Colin Lilley, and Faith Whitt along with Sophomore Kael Bunce and Freshmen Chelsey Asquith and Hailey Howard. 

STOCKBRIDGE STUDENTS HEADING TO AMERICAN SAMOA

The Stockbridge InvenTeam has been invited to conduct research, test equipment and conduct an educational outreach project in The National Marine Sanctuary of American Samoa, November 21 to December 4, 2018.

Stockbridge InvenTeam members traveling to American Samoa include; Michelle Zemke, Katelyn Knieper, Chloe Miner, Kael Bunce, Baylee Heidrich, Sylvia Whitt, Chelsey Asquith, Molly Nichols, Julia Marhofer, Hailee Fraser-Gutting, Katie Miller, and Hailey Howard.  The team’s faculty mentor is Stockbridge Jr/Sr High School Teacher Bob Richards.

The National Marine Sanctuary of American Samoa (NMSAS) is located in the cradle of Polynesia’s oldest culture and thought to support the greatest diversity of marine life in the National Marine Sanctuary System. The sanctuary protects extensive coral reefs, including some of the oldest and largest Porites coral heads in the world, deep water reefs, hydrothermal vent communities and rare marine archaeological resources.

The teams’ project aims to Inspire, Engage, and Educate students while providing a unique research experience in one of America’s underwater parks.  The project has three major goals: (1) to conduct a bottom fish study around Aunu'u Island (2) to conduct a study of Palolo worm spawning, and (3) to connect with a school in American Samoa to share knowledge and culture between students, and conduct a STEM program.

Students will spend the next 10 months building a new Remotely Operated Vehicle or ROV, a baited underwater camera system and a benthic lander in addition to raising funds for the project.  

On Wednesday, October 14, 2015 the Lemelson-MIT program announced that Stockbridge High School has received a Lemelson-MIT InvenTeams™ grant of up to $10,000!

Lemelson-MIT InvenTeams™ are teams of high school students, educators, and mentors that receive grants up to $10,000 each to invent technological solutions to real-world problems. InvenTeams research intellectual property, exchange ideas, design parts, build models, and make modifications as they develop their invention prototypes. They learn to move forward through challenges and celebrate “Eureka!” moments, all while cultivating their technical leadership skills. Projects are collaborative efforts, driven by the students. The InvenTeam initiative fosters a “learning-by-doing” environment fueled by inquiry-based thinking.

The Stockbridge High School InvenTeam’s proposed invention is an accessory for a GoPro style sports/action camera that turns the Camera into a low cost, remote underwater camera and water quality monitoring system capable of shooting time-lapse photography for up to 5 days at a time in remote locations without having to change batteries or SD cards.  At the heart of our project is the unique base and mounting system which also houses a sensor package capable of collecting water quality data and logging the data on an SD card.  Image, GPS and water quality data which has been logged on the SD card can then be used by scientists to study the effect of lampricide on reducing numbers of invasive Sea Lamprey in the Great Lakes. This invention will be used by marine biologists, teachers, researchers and citizen scientist to capture photographic and water quality data in aquatic environments over extended periods of time.  This invention will increase the effectiveness of current research methods with the goal of improving the efficiency of lampricide application within the tributaries to the Great Lakes.

The team members are Poppy Cox (11), Faith Whitt (10), Madison Howard (10), Kelly Cool (10), Michelle Zemke (9), Katelyn Knieper(9), Baylee Heidrich (8) and Sylvia Whitt (8).  The team’s faculty mentors are Mr. Richards and Mr. Trapp.  The team will also be working with Julie Hinderer, Senior Science Program Associate at the Great Lakes Fishery Commission.  The Great Lakes Fishery Commission has pledged to support this team’s project with mentorship and field testing site selection.

Students, teachers, and mentors representing the Stockbridge InvenTeam will travel to Cambridge, Mass. in June for the Lemelson-MIT Program's EurekaFest, a multi-day celebration of the inventive spirit. InvenTeams present and showcase their prototypes at EurekaFest’s public exhibit. Teams are inspired by the National Collegiate Student Prize winners, MIT faculty, and one another.

True success for each InvenTeam is students having fun throughout the grant cycle while collaborating to build a useful and unique device that positively impacts the lives of others. - See more at: http://lemelson.mit.edu/inventeams#sthash.ytIQrAzU.dpuf